Lorde's Fugazi, Mars Volta, and PJ Harvey-Influenced High School Band Recordings Surface

Listen to And They Were Masked's album featuring Ella Yelich O’Connor

Before Lorde was Lorde, she was just regular ol' Ella Yelich O’Connor—another teenager playing with her friends in a band. That band, And They Were Masked, was influenced by the Mars Volta, Fugazi, PJ Harvey, Bloc Party, Battles, Massive Attack, At the Drive-In, Dirty Three, and others, according to their Facebook page.

On Bandcamp, you can listen to Characters, an album they released in 2012 that features Lorde's vocals on a few songs, as Consequence of Sound points out, via Lorde Daily. (In particular, she's featured on "Sands of John" and "Piece of Mind".) It doesn't seem like she was a full-time member, which so far appears to have been the right career choice. Check it out below.